


And they lived happily ever after: A Quentin/Eliot ending to The Magician's Land

by numinousnumbat



Category: The Magicians - Lev Grossman
Genre: Fix-It, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 15:23:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13977960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/numinousnumbat/pseuds/numinousnumbat
Summary: In storytelling, we all know you need to give the reader what they need, not what they want … so anyway here’s an ending toThe Magician’s Landthat gives me what Iwant, namely Quentin/Eliot.





	And they lived happily ever after: A Quentin/Eliot ending to The Magician's Land

**Author's Note:**

> This is intended to replace the last 10 pages or so in _The Magician's Land_ so you'll probably want to have read that before this. 
> 
> The italicized bit at the beginning is quoted directly from the book, from Chapter 30, and are Lev Grossman's words, not mine.

_"No more spinning," Janet said. "That's all I ask. The spinning thing was always bullshit. I don't know how the dwarfs sold them on that in the first place."_

_"I hear you," Eliot said. "I'm not arguing. We'll take it up with them when they get back. If they come back."_

_"But listen, what about the color?" Josh said. "Is that on the table? Because I gotta tell you, the white never did it for me. A bird took a crap on that thing, you could see it a mile away. I know Castle Blackspire was a house of unspeakable evil or whatever, but you have to admit it looked pretty badass."_

_"What about the name, though?" Poppy said. "We'd have to change that, too."_

_"Ooh, good point," Josh said. "I guess we can't live in Castle Mauvespire or whatever. Or could we? Hi, Quentin!"_

Julia and Quentin had arrived back at Castle Whitespire, where they found Alice, Eliot, Janet, Josh, Plum, and Poppy discussing castle building plans. Julia touched Quentin's face in parting and faded away leaving Quentin with his friends. 

The quest was over, the world was saved. Quentin knew himself too well to expect to be joyous or elated, but content, maybe, he would have expected. Satisfied, perhaps? But of course not. He had this nagging sensation he didn’t belong here, in Fillory. Was there another adventure out there for him? Or maybe it was it time for retirement? A small cabin in the woods, maybe he could get a dog. Maybe perfect endings only happened to the brave heroes who were handsome and pure of heart, people who weren't anything like Quentin. 

They had all hugged and expressed pleasure they were still alive and Fillory was saved and then conversation had slowly started to dwindle. 

Poppy and Josh left first. “I’m going to lay down and see if this baby will get out of my ribs,” she said. Josh helped get her on her feet and they walked into the castle.

“Thanks for saving my kingdom for me,” Janet said to Quentin, punching him lightly on the shoulder.

“Well, it saved me first,” Quentin said, too honest. He realized how he sounded and shrugged to take off the edge of his earnestness.

“I’m excited to explore this place,” Plum said. “Fillory! Maybe Aunt Jane will want to go with me, see what’s changed. She must have known the old Fillory better than anyone.”

“Let me see if I can find a hippogriff for you to ride on,” Janet said.

“Really?” Plum said. “That sounds awesome.”

“It’s not, but you gotta try it at least once,” Janet replied. “You don’t want to go to your grave wondering what it’s like to fly on one of those.”

“I think I’m ready to go,” Alice said to no one in particular. She might have forgotten speaking to someone was something humans did.

“Where to, our formerly blue friend?” Eliot asked.

“I don’t know,” Alice said. “But I know this,” she gestured at the whole of Fillory, “isn’t it.”

“Have you seen Penny lately?” Janet asked Alice. “He’s got magic hands. You gotta hit that again and find out what those hands can do.”

Alice looked slightly disgusted like she had been expecting a turkey sandwich and wasn’t sure what to do with this mouthful of liverwurst she had bitten into instead. “I would be interested in revisiting the library perhaps.”

“Magic hands,” Janet repeated, nodding.

“There’s probably still an open professor position at Brakebills,” Quentin said. “I doubt Fogg was in a hurry to replace, well, me.”

Alice made the smallest of nods at Quentin. Maybe she was being polite, maybe she was considering it. Quentin couldn’t tell.

“I can actually see you as a professor,” Eliot said to Quentin, tilting his head to the side as if he was studying Quentin. “The white hair makes it.”

“Thanks?” Quentin said.

“Yes, you’d be the hot professor,” Eliot said nodding decisively. “Maybe I should be a professor? Then _I_ could be the hot professor.”

Plum started to check out Eliot and Janet put her hands over Plum’s eyes. “Don’t go there, sweetheart.”

“I’m not going to thank you for bringing me back,” Alice said to Quentin.

“I'm not sorry I did it, but let me know if I can help you ... readjust," Quentin said. He hoped maybe one day she would understand why he did what he did. And if not, well, he had done what he thought needed to be done, and wasn't that what heroes were supposed to do?

“Goodbye, Quentin.” She turned her wrist like she was turning a doorknob and a portal opened. She stepped through and didn't look back. The other side of the portal looked like the library. He hoped she could find something that made her happy.

“Magic hands!” Janet yelled as the portal closed behind Alice.

As if on cue, a horse wandered up to them and nudged Plum’s hand. “Oh!” she said. “Is this a sign? Shall I be going then?”

The horse nudged her hand again.

“It’s the best way to quest,” Eliot said.

“Am I on a quest?” Plum asked.

Eliot and Quentin shared a look. “Keep your eyes open,” Quentin said. “And if something strange is calling to you, follow that urge.”

“That's all there is to it?” Plum asked. She easily hoisted herself onto the horse and the horse took a few small steps to regain its balance.

“Seems to have worked out for us and Fillory,” Eliot said.

“Well then,” Plum said smiling broadly, “Onward!” She pointed vaguely west, and the horse whinnied slightly and took off at a trot due north.

They were sitting on the hill watching the sun go down; it was Janet and Eliot and Quentin now. This was sort of how everything started and Quentin was thinking of a night long ago, a night which had involved the three of them. A night he had regretted because of how it ended things between Alice and him, but now he knew Alice wasn't his future, it took on a different type of memory in his head. It had changed from regret to a warm memory that reminded him of some of the better times at Brakebills and how in love all of the Physical Kids had been with each other, with magic, with the glowing promise of an unknown future. 

“That is one beautiful sunset,” Janet said. It really was, the entire sky was some shade of pink. Quentin hoped he would remember this sunset forever. How many sunsets had he seen in his life where he had had the same thought, though?

“Have you decided what you’re doing next?” Eliot asked. He was looking at the sunset, not at Quentin or Janet.

“I don’t know,” Quentin said. "I might spend some time here to figure it out." Eliot, out of everyone, would understand this empty feeling inside of him. How much had they drunk together to try and fill it? How many times did they get up again to see if this was the thing that could make them whole? But sitting here with Eliot made everything feel ... manageable. Like maybe his flaws were ok and his holes didn't need filling. He had thought what was missing in his life was a place or an adventure, but based on how he felt right now, he had been missing a person. Quentin wouldn't mind some time in Fillory getting to be around Eliot and the rest of his friends. 

“You know, I didn’t know much about being a High King when I became one,” Eliot said. Quentin wasn’t sure where this non-sequitur was going, but Eliot usually came to his point sooner rather than later. “And whenever I came to a problem that I didn’t know how to solve, I asked myself ‘What would Quentin do?’”

“WWQD,” Janet chimed in.

“And most of the time I was like ‘Not even Quentin would know what to do about a band of arsonist hedgehogs,’ but sometimes, you know, it helped.”

Quentin felt a rush of something go through him. How many times had he yearned to have a conversation with Eliot when Eliot was a world away? “I didn't want to leave you.”

"I know, when you were banished, it was honestly the worst moment of my life." Eliot rubbed his face with his hands. "And after we left you with the centaurs, I had promised myself if I ever got you back, I would never leave you again, but I did." 

“Yeah, but now that we're here, it feels like everything that happened needed to happen," Quentin said. "I never doubted you, or what I meant to you. Which reminds me, thank you for the watch.” He pulled the broken pocket watch out of his pants and held it out in his palm facing Eliot. Eliot touched the watch with one finger but left it in Quentin’s hand.

“You still have it,” Eliot said softly, reverently.

“I never got it to work,” Quentin said. “It's kinda funny, I never told you guys, but they finally figured out my discipline. It’s Repair of Small Objects.”

“What a loser discipline,” Janet said laughing. “But, hey, welcome to the Physical House.”

“I hear there’s a test,” Quentin said.

“I have a hunch you’ll pass,” Janet said. She paused for a moment. “God, it feels like Brakebills was a _hundred_ years ago.”

“A _thousand_ years,” Eliot said.

“A _million_ years,” Quentin said. “But I can still remember learning magic was real like it was yesterday, and meeting you all, and finding out Fillory was real." He fiddled with the watch for a moment and like turning on a light in a dim room, he saw what needed to be done. “Hey, Eliot can you hold the watch open?” - and Eliot went to grab the watch - “Sorry, with magic, I should have said, I’m going to zap it.”

“It’s hard to believe you’re one of the greatest magicians in all the worlds and the best way you can describe magic is _zap it_ ," Eliot said dryly. 

Quentin blushed. “I’m not. A great magician. But thanks.”

Eliot concentrated on his finger work and held the watch open midway between him and Quentin.

Janet looked on from the side. “I’m going to put up a couple shields in case of explosions,” she said and easily worked the shielding magic.

When everything was set, Quentin sent a small surge of power through the watch and like a person surfacing the ocean after being underneath for almost too long, it seemed to take a giant inhale and then started quietly ticking. Quentin dropped his hands, then Janet dropped hers, and then Eliot snapped his fingers and the watch closed midair and landed in his hand.

“So Repair of Small Objects,” Eliot said. “Fitting.” He smiled at the watch and handed it back to Quentin. He took the crown off his head and laid it next to him, muttering "I should have planned this better," and then with a few hand gestures and some murmured ancient Celtic, he formed a small, simple ring from the metal of his crown. The ring was floating in front of him and he closed his hand around it. He took a deep breath. 

Quentin thought he might know where this was going and his heart started to pound.

“Quentin Coldwater, former god of Fillory, former king of Fillory, and most importantly my best friend, will you do me the honor of marrying me?” Eliot said looking at Quentin and holding the ring out. “Shit, I should be kneeling.” He started to move onto his knees but Quentin held him in place and leaned in for a kiss. They kissed and broke apart and smiled at each other. Quentin had to be the biggest idiot for not figuring this out sooner. How long had he been in love with Eliot? Years and years, he guessed.

“Is that a yes?” Eliot asked. “I’d really like to hear a _yes_ come from your mouth sometime soon - I've been wanting to ask you since you showed back up on the _Muntjac_ after that year away.”

“It’s a yes,” Quentin said, and Eliot slid the ring onto Quentin's finger and leaned over for another, longer kiss. 

“Get a room, you two,” Janet said, the smile on her face not matching her words or tone.

“This is my kingdom,” Eliot said. “Our kingdom,” he amended. “I will kiss my future husband wherever and whenever I want.”

“Is gay marriage even allowed in Fillory?” Quentin asked.

“I wrote the damned constitution myself,” Janet said. “It’s allowed.”

“Yay!” Eliot said, smiling lopsidedly. “Ok, this is some epic fairy tale level happiness I’m feeling right now.”

Quentin smiled and laced their fingers together. “Me, too.” It made sense, Quentin thought. He had adventured and quested across worlds to find what he wanted had been so close all along. They continued to watch the sun go down and Quentin thought this next adventure might be the best one yet. 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed my romp through some fluff! 
> 
> I am on [tumblr](https://numinousnumbat.tumblr.com/).


End file.
